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(1942-98), U.S. country-music singer. Early in her recording career, Tammy Wynette was dubbed The First Lady of Country Music when she became the first female country act to have a million-selling album. However, she came by another nickname-the Heroine of Heartache-the hard way. With a history of stormy marriages, health problems, and other hardships, Wynette was a country music archetype whose life was the stuff of the anguished songs she sang. Her material was matched by her unmistakable voice: balancing melancholy with determination, it enabled her to deliver entire songs while seemingly on the verge of tears.